African Union troops invade rebel island

An arriving soldier reacts to cheering civilians on Anjouan island, where the Comoros central government says it has regained control. Photograph: Jerome Delay/AP

The central government of the Comoros islands in the Indian Ocean today said it had regained control of an island where a renegade colonel seized power in May.

Explosions and gunfire started before dawn as hundreds of troops moved in for a long-threatened attack backed by the African Union.

"Anjouan island is under total control of the army," Major Ahmed Sidi told reporters on the neighbouring island of Moheli. "So far we have no dead or wounded to lament. The rebel chiefs have all run away, and none has yet been found."

However, about a dozen armed men identifying themselves as loyalists to the rebel colonel, Mohamed Bacar, appeared to be still in control just over a mile outside Anjouans's capital, Mutsamudu, and waiting for an attack.

A national government statement said the three main towns of Ouani, Mutsamudu and Domoni had been retaken. "These three urban centres are currently under control... For the moment there is no news of the rebellion chief or of his lieutenants."

There was no independent confirmation of the captures from Anjouan, where phone lines have been cut. At least 80 AU troops from Tanzania were in the landing force, and a handful of government soldiers were seen by reporters. The troops apparently arrived on four ships.

"Our troops have their feet on the ground... The assault has started well and good," Mohamed Bacar Dossar, a presidential official in charge of defence, told Reuters. He said about 400 troops from the AU and the Comoros army had taken part in a "first wave" of assaults.

He said troops were at the door of the Anjouan leader's village home in Barakani near the capital. "Some of the soldiers have been given orders to look for him," he said. "(But) we know that during these past months he didn't sleep in his home. He was afraid."

Residents said soldiers were doing house-to-house searches. Hundreds of people took to the streets, some of them chanting "Bacar is a dog" and "We have won!"

The Comoros, an archipelago of three main islands 250 miles (400 kilometres) off Africa's south-east coast, has had 20 coups or attempts since its independence from France in 1975. Each of the three main islands has a regional president under the national government.

Bacar, a former Anjouan president, seized control of the island last May, saying he was seeking independence.

The French-trained former gendarme clung to power in Anjouan, which has a population of 300,000, in an illegal election last year. He has a militia of several hundred.

With 1,350 AU troops in support, the government of the Comoros president, Ahmed Abdallah Sambi, based in Moroni on the main island of Grand Comore, hopes to quickly topple Bacar. "I have ordered the army to invade Anjouan to liberate the island from the hands of Mohamed Bacar," Sambi said at a news conference.

Before the attack, helicopters dropped leaflets over the island urging residents to stay in their homes to avoid the fighting.

"The national army of development (AND) informs all the residents that it will be in Anjouan in the days, or rather the hours coming," the leaflets read. "It is therefore advised that residents do not stray too far from their residences."

If the operation goes smoothly it will be a fillip for the AU, which has struggled with its peacekeeping missions in Sudan and Somalia.

The Comoros - which grow vanilla, cloves and ylang-ylang, a flower used to produce oil for aromatherapy - were first settled by Arab seafarers 1,000 years ago, then later became a pirate haven. The total population is about 700,000.